Instagram accused of endangering Iran critics

Hackers thought to work for the Revolutionary Guard have made replicas of Iran International’s social media accounts

Tom Ball

Saturday May 23 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Instagram has been accused of breaching international human rights law after hosting fake accounts set up by Iran to identify supporters of a British-based news channel.

Iran International, a Farsi-language outlet based in west London, is the target of a state-sponsored hack that has sought to discredit its reporting and trace its followers.

Tehran’s intelligence ministry has described Iran International’s journalists as “enemies of the state” after the channel reported on clashes between protesters and security forces in Iran last year.

Hackers, who are thought to work for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have made replicas of Iran International’s social media accounts. These enable them to identify followers who believe that they are subscribing to the real channel. False job adverts have also been